Clean a pencil scan without redrawing it
Set black and white points on a copy so the line is easier to color and the drawing stays yours.
Paper is gray. Scanners add a color cast. Levels fix that. A generative fill does not, because it replaces your line with a guess.
Tools
Affiliate links are switched off. The buttons below go to official sites, not paid links. Affiliate disclosure
Photopea
A free browser editor for levels and curves on a scan.
Adobe Photoshop
The usual desktop editor for the same levels-and-curves cleanup.
Krita
A free desktop painting app with levels and filters.
How to do it
- 1
Keep the original
Save the scan as its own file and duplicate it before any edit. Name the copy so you can throw it away.
- 2
Crop and straighten
In Photopea, Photoshop, or Krita, crop to the drawing and rotate until the page edge is square. Do this before levels so you are not correcting empty margin.
- 3
Set the points
Use Levels or Curves. Move the white point until the paper is paper, and the black point until the pencil is pencil. Stop before the light construction lines disappear if you still need them.
- 4
Do not generate a new line
If a corner is faint, draw it back yourself on a new layer. Leave generative tools off for this pass.